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Unformatted text preview: QUESTIONS FOR POJMAN, 2nd EditionINTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY-- QUESTIONS ON POJMANPart I, chapter 1, pp. 3-19. The Presocratics, 1. How were the earliest philosophers different from previous thinkers? Religious authority or myths were not imposing answers on the questions of the philoso- phers. 2. What seems to have been the beginning of natural law? Anazimander s idea of the equilibrium of forces and the movement of elements in The Whirl. Now blind, im- personal natural causes began to replace the gods. 3. Summarize briey (e.g., in a sentence) the views of: Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes, Xenophanes, Pythagoras, the Eleatics, Heraclitus, the Pluralists, and Anaxagoras. Thales: All of reality is made up of water because it is necessary for production and sustenance of life. Anaximander: The InFnite, an unknown, boundless, material substance, is eternally in motion and is the source of time, space, matter and mind. Anaximenes: Reality is inFnite, but air is the ultimate substance. Xenophanes: All cultures create gods in their own image, but there is one God beyond all these counterfeits who remains forever in one place and sets all things in motion. Pythagoras: The immortal soul can migrate to other kids of animals and all things with souls are related. the Eleatics: That which is, is and cannot not be, while that which is not is not, and cannot be. Heraclitus:ire is identical with the universe, and nothing is; everything is becoming. the Plural- ists: The world is either made up of water, earth, air, and Fre, or of indestructible homogenous particles called atoms. Anaxagoras: All things contain a portion of everything else. 4. What did Zeno try to prove? There is no motion or multiplicity What was his argu- ment? If a line is divisible into units, then it must be able to be divided into an in- Fnite number of units. If we multiplied them, the line would be inFnitely large, not Fnite. Also, there is no movement because things are simple at rest at any point in their course; they cannot be moving in a place where it is not. Note that he is the rst to argue from the principle of non-contradiction. 5. What did Heraclitus believe about change, the Logos, and good and evil? All is in constant ux and constant motion; nothing is stable. The Logos, as the rational principle of the universe, has independent existence and according to it, all things come into existence. He believed that most men are bad. 6. What did Anaxagoras believe about Mind? The mind orders all things. 7. Summarize the views of Democritus on atoms. They are simple, indestructible, in- ternally solid, homogenous particles which are perpetually in motion in the void of empty space. Their combination and interaction account for all that is....
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